Glennon, a third-round draft pick from North Carolina State, got the nod for the team's Week 4 home game against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. At 0-3, the Buccaneers hope the move will provide a spark for a sputtering offense.

Josh Freeman has completed less than 50 percent of his passes this season. (AP Photo)

"This is a performance-based decision," coach Greg Schiano told reporters Wednesday. "We're not getting the job done on the field."

Freeman has completed only 45.7 percent of his pass attempts this season and has only two TD passes to three interceptions. His passer rating is a dismal 59.3 despite having good supporting talent such as Doug Martin, Vincent Jackson and Mike Williams. Including a freefall at the end of last season, the Bucs have lost eight of their past nine games with Freeman as the starter.

"There are a lot of reasons for (the move). It's not just one guy," Schiano told reporters. "But's that's a critical piece of it. ... The quarterback touches the ball every play."

There had been rumors that Schiano was tired of Freeman. Not only has Freeman struggled on the field, but Schiano made it public that the quarterback had overslept and was late to a team meeting a couple of weeks ago.

Schiano, meanwhile, has long coveted Glennon, who like Freeman is a tall (6-6) passer with a strong arm. When Schiano was head coach at Rutgers, he attempted to recruit Glennon before Glennon chose to attend NC State.

"I'm not going to get into comparisons with what Josh can do, and what (Glennon) can do," Schiano said.

"What I will tell you is that Mike is a smart, tough football player. I think he works extremely hard, I think he will go out and try to do what we're coaching him to do. You're not going to be perfect, no one is. But I think he's going to try to do it to his ability, which is what we're asking him to do in the game plan."

And, to hear Glennon tell it, a pro game plan isn't a foreign concept to him. He ran a pro-style offense at NC State.

"I have five years of an NFL-like offense under my belt. Not the same terminology, not the exact same plays, but as an 18-year-old, I was running NFL concepts," Glennon told reporters. "You watch college football, and that's not as common nowadays. So I was very fortunate."

Because the Bucs have a bye in Week 5, it seemed as though Week 6 would have been a better time to put the change into effect. But the team decided it couldn't wait any longer.

The two quarterbacks taken ahead of Glennon in the 2013 draft, the Bills' EJ Manuel (first round) and Jets' Geno Smith (second round), have already started three games and are expected to be their teams' No. 1 the rest of the way. Now Glennon gets a chance to do the same.